Interior Lighting

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

In addition to the furniture and accessories of a home, the interior lighting also plays a part in the overall interior design. In fact, it provides a huge impact to the look and feel of any room and pulls all other elements together. The lights can be designed to give as much or as little illumination as is needed, depending on the location and purpose of the room.

Light fixtures consist of units that are both built into the wall or on the ceiling (controlled by merely flicking a switch) or can be removable table or floor lamps which highlight the decor of the rooms they are placed in. Light design in a room can be created in many different ways to compliment a home's decor.

Natural light can be used to illuminate a room that has been specially arranged to capture the rays of the sun at different times of the day. Since the quality of this light source changes with the season and the weather, it will not be as consistent as other artificial sources, but it can be more dramatic than any other.

With the use of halogen spotlights and table lamps with opaque shades, you can create accent lighting in any room. With this type of interior lighting, an item, either architectural or an object such as a painting, will be highlighted with the light source which then creates a point of interest in the room.

Task lights are used for the practical purpose of illuminating areas of work such as in the kitchen, in a reading room or around a favorite reading chair, in a sewing room over the sewing machine, and even in the bath room to allow good interior lighting for the application of make-up or for shaving.

Ambient lights are those that are hidden from view and provide a soft wash over a room, almost like a glow. With this, very few shadows are cast and the room takes on a more flattened appearance. A dimmer switch can also be used to create the effect of ambient light, if only temporarily.

When designing with interior lighting, it is a good idea to select fixtures that have a more classic design as opposed to one that is hip or trendy. When this is done the decor of the room can be more easily updated by just purchasing different shades instead of switching out the fixture itself.

Be sure to change out older light bulbs and replace with the newer more energy efficient bulbs which are brighter, have a longer life and will help save our environment.